3. TX? AL? FL? GA? SC? NC? WTF? ( n/t )

4. Wow.

I count seven whose states are in hurricane prone areas (Cornyn, Graham, Sessions, Chambliss, Isakson, Burr, and Rubio). I hope everyone remembers this vote when one of their states gets socked some time in the next summer or two.

6. We can't punish them though, it's the people we care about, not the money.

9. Unfortunately, you're right, but we should still remember this.

When Rubio and his ilk come looking for federal disaster relief, we can at least bring this up again, remind everyone about it, hope that some journalist (if any still live) might even ask the Senator to explain the apparent inconsistency.

In short, we can make their lives miserable before we give them their money.

11. The public would see it as partisan punishment. It would also be a betrayal of our way of goverance.

The GOP handles these relief bills like bribes exchanged between pals. Also they never look ahead. We have a poster here say the GOP were right to turn it down because it had too much 'pork.' I didn't bother to respond as my bridge alert sign went off, why bother.

What the GOP called 'pork' were projects to facilitate evacuations in the future and prevent flooding and were rejected by the GOP. Obama spoke of this in support of the bill several times, including January 1st. The GOP want soup kitchen level support for the citizens affected, as it fits their libertarian model of social services, no pay back to the citizens for their taxes paid in. And not wanting them to get back on their feet to pay back, since starving the treasury and the citizens are good for their business and social model. No government at all, except as a honey pot for their pals.

And we can't be as naive as to think they'd would not begrudge the soup kitchen level and claim wrongfully used welfare payments. If they aren't their fiefdom's peons, to hell with them.

Democrats believe whatever money is taken into D.C. belongs to the nation as a whole, not to be used for only the people you know. That government should not discriminate in principle. The GOP believes in discrimination as one of their prime principles. If you aren't on their list of the worthies, the hell with you.

Even to chastise them for hypocrisy, with the barest hint of retaliation, is not the Democratic Party way. It is why Democrats are called 'weak' and it is nothing of the sort. But fewer people grasp these concepts anymore. And journalists are owned by the same people who wrote the policy for the GOP, so don't expect anyone to call them on what you term inconsistencies. Besides, if you really think about their godfather mentality, it is all consistent.

Not that well written, but you see I am working on explaining this, and have had some real world talk with friends to get them to see what we're up against. Not to give up by any means, but to be able to be more persuasive. We don't have the media memes on our side, ever. See you later, friend.

13. Retaliation would be seen as partisan, and would be wrong...

but calling them out on their hypocrisy can be done more effectively than it has.

There's much truth in what you wrote here and in your #12 about the media, but I'm a bit less pessimistic than you are. The media are biased but they do like a good clothesline spat. If a prominent legislator (or maybe even the President) brings up something like this, it will be reported to at least some extent.

Also, more and more people (especially the younger adults whose party identification is still more fluid) are getting their news outside the corporate media. Attacks on such hypocrisy should be easier to promulgate than they would have been even ten years ago.

12. How do you shove it down their throats where anyone will see it?

The media in the states they hail from won't go after them, where it matters. Now you may write them a blistering letter or speak publicly, and I suspect you will do so. If you believe your GOP (I'm guessing that is what you are saying) is amenable to being shamed.

The idea that money goes into one big pot in Washington, D.C., is a principle seldom popular in red states. They believe they are being robbed by paying taxes, and their money is going to welfare cheats like Babs Bush called the 'lucky duckies' in aftermath of Katrina. They will always have a reason to screw people.

In general, not talking about you, Americans need to cease looking at the needs of others they don't know and will never meet, as beggars. At one time we had a spirit of working together, such as FDR called us to have and were united. We are all in vulnerable places at times in our lives, in childhood or old age, or in between if disability or injury in our prime years is our lot or disaster.

The reason the GOP rejected the bill was they said there was too much 'pork' which plays well when it's not your state getting the 'pork.' Those funds were for preventing a forseeable disaster due to loss of infrastructure in several ways such as flood prevention, repair of transportation, housing and social networks.

That's not 'pork' unless one thinks that the government is a place you beg for help when you get into a jam due to your own foolishness. The GOP model of government is letting things get to the point of disaster, then extracting concessions. The Democratic way to provide strength to prevent the disaster.

14. When I say "we", I mean Democrats, primarily elected Democrats.

When the next hurricane devastates one of these states, I expect every damn Democrat in in a seat of any sort of power to be out there shoving it down their throat by reminding their constituents of this vote. In fact, I don't think they even need to wait for a disaster. These people need to be constantly reminded of what the people the elected think of them. That needs to be done by those who get the media's attention, such as the President, the VP, the head of FEMA, and every last member of Congress.

5. Kyl and McCain ...

from the great State of Arizona voted "No" to aid for disaster relief ... after receiving some form of disaster relief for just about every one of the 20+ years that I have lived in Arizona. Color me shocked at their "Give me, screw you" hypocrisy.

15. Yup, those fires. How much of that was national park land, though?

And how many baggers want that land sold off to private interests, like they've pushed for in Utah -- vast tracts of land given away for nothing to the plutocrats, a massive theft being carried out under the guise of a making that libertarian paradise. The GOP talking points are held to be sacrosanct, and the rest of us slurred as 'statist' progressives?

Then it's no longer public property or tax money, except for the theft from the natives and the people as a whole. I don't sense any desire for anything public in Arizona -- look at what Joe just did with the schools and Brewer with the border -- wow.

Mind you, I only see what's on the internet but it appears baggers rule there on a scale seldom seen except in regions traditionally seen as benighted. And other regions that would surprise many people, too. So I'm not dissing Arizona.

I wonder if that is what McCain and Kyl were aiming at here. Because there are negative and positive messaging from these votes. They are against people in other states having any of the largess afforded by a national government. Only their state matters, they are apart. Their power allows for nothing horizontal or national, all vertical power straight to them just as fascist governments do in effect. You have to have friends in high places or be related to someone who is. And if you don't, just FOAD.

It's as if AZ, and other red states have politicians doing their best to secede from the union without calling it that. I mean, that's what this vote says to the heart. To me, these votes are saying that in the most direct of terms. For those who support anarchy, this is great. It's local control but in the hands such conditions always create. Be ready to drink some fascism mixed with fundamentalist religion and racism with that yummy kool-aid.

Thanks for reminding me of the fires, it's been a terrible loss to habitat and resources. Does anyone there credit global warming for these events, as some have said that the Sandy event was?

16. Here in Arizona? ...

Thanks for reminding me of the fires, it's been a terrible loss to habitat and resources. Does anyone there credit global warming for these events, as some have said that the Sandy event was?

The vast majority either just don't think about it, or, among those that do, a lot believe that CC is just a myth ... a myth promoted by the UN to advance Agenda 21 to steal our freedom and force socialism on 'Merica.